Again, what a day! Up early to get to Chicago in time for a 7 pm start, and just about made it, after allowing for dinner with a relative unseen for 40 years, and then not even a full game. And the Giants did good, even after giving up a 2 run homer with one out in the 1st inning. They out hit the Cubs 6-3 in a 4 1/2 inning rain shortened game to the legal level to create another loss.
I understand Bochy complained about calling the game, after an almost 5 hour wait. The rules put that decision into the sole discretion of the umpires. Once the game starts, the clubs have nothing to say about things like rain. We didn’t object when at 8:40 pm we decided to go back to the hotel. As it turned out, we were glad we did.
Todays another day- or night- and we will do better. We could have caught up yesterday, but as I always say, “That’s baseball”
We began the home stay with a 1:30 arrival and a 10:30 surgery for Bert. He is fine just a basal cell removal due to many baseball games in the sun. Dr Neuhaus and his team made sure Bert could make the game in Chicago and they put in disposable stitches. Bert requested an orange SF, but they didn’t have orange suture material.LOL We met Natosha on a previous visit prior to the wedding and she was eager to see wedding photos. Her supervisor happened to walk by and recognized us from TV. Even surgery is fun these days.

We began this leg of the 81 adventure with an early morning flight on Virgin America. We met this couple waiting for the flight and they offered to give Bert and I their seats so Bert and I could sit together. I have mentioned this story is not just our story, but the story of others who often show unexpected acts of kindness. We opted to keep the seats we were in because I was happily between two Giants fans and Bert planned on sleeping. I got to hear their Giants adventure, and share ours and the flight flew by. We hit a bit of noticable turbulence outside Chicago, and I shared a story about how when my daughter was young we had hit turbulence I had gripped the arm rest and held on for dear life. My daughter burst into song and sang a song she made up for the occasion “Bumping in the Sky”. I told the woman that my daughter singing had shown me that how one reacts to a situation is a choice, and my daughter clearly had made the situation a light-hearted one. I think of that song any time we hit turbulence. The woman and I then joined in a chorus of Bumping in the Sky” and the turbulence was gone.
We grabbed our luggage and headed to the hotel. We are staying at the Intercontinental. It is convenient to the Wrigley via the redline. Traffic was terrible and it took until after 3 for the taxi driver to reach the hotel. We met up with my mom’s cousin Jean Alan who is a world-renowned interior decorator. I had not seen her in more than 40 years, so we had lots to catch up on. We had lunch/dinner at Eataly. It is an unusual place, and I had a delicious artichoke dish.

It was wonderful to go to a Cubs game with family. I had heard stories of my great-grandmother, grandmother, and mother attending Cubbies games on ladies day. Going into a grand old ball park that generations had seen was memorable.
We ran into some fans who recognized the 81 couple.
The game is a memorable one because it was decided by the incompetence of the Cubs ground crew. They looked like a comic team as they stood around with the tarp in the downpour, and then couldn’t get the field covered. I have had comments from Giants fans alleging that this was the only way the Cubs can win a game these days. They had mountain sized bubbles in the tarp, and tarped and retarped numerous times. Never have I seen such a bungled job. They managed to dump water all over the field, and the game couldn’t be resumed because despite only a 15 minute shower, the field was to wet and muddy to be safe. I am ready for a better result today.

Our seats are in 216 row 7 seats 7-10. So stop by and say hi

Until,
Bert and Le Anne